It was a lazy afternoon and I had a taco craving today, so I headed down Preston. Hadn't been to La Tapatia in a while, but evidently I'll never get to eat there again because there is a new restaurant in it's place called La Molcajete. They were smoking meat on the side of the building, and it smelled wonderful. I had a hard time finding a door to enter, as there were several, and they were all locked except for 1, and several "OPEN" signs were lit up, except for 1 (I was like "weird, what does this mean???"
). I think it was a blessing in disguise that I wasn't able to enter through the first couple of doors I tried, because it took the walk to the final door to see the B rating on the window. I hesitated, but decided I wouldn't have any meat.I was greeted with a menu and found a booth in the front dining area, and as I walked to my table I saw little 6th pans on every table with what appeared to be marinating peppers and stuff. I thought that was pretty cool, but also unsanitary in the back of my mind, considering the lids of 6th pans are not secure, and we're not just talking about the hot mustard and duck sauce in chinese restaurants from the past - there was real food in these things. And no utensils present for customers to remove the peppers.
I sat down and pulled out my iPhone to look for reviews - the couple that I read were pretty glowing. I looked at the menu and narrowed it down to a couple of things. They placed salsa and chips on my table, and the salsa was hot (temperature) and spicy, with a sprinkle of cilantro on top - tasty. I'd already pulled the lid off of the 6th pan before opening the menu and decided that it looked disgusting, but then I pulled it off again to really see what was in there... WHAT WAS IN THERE???!!!
I'm not really sure what was in there in total, and it didn't smell like much, but it was definitely rotten and there were 100's or 1000's of teeny tiny little worms (not like the maggots I've seen before, these were about 1/20th in scale) swimming ALL over the pieces of vegetables that were above the level of vinegar and brine in the pan and surrounded by a milky surface. I placed the pan on the table next to me, paused, looked around, and high-tailed my way out of there.
After leaving, I felt bad about not alerting management, so I called and asked for a mgr. I described what I saw, and he argued that they are very clean and that it was impossible because the container is full of vinegar. I told him that I understood why he would be defensive, and that my only reason for calling was to inform them and help others. I wasn't rude at all, and even told him I was sorry for being the bearer of unfortunate news, but he wasn't apologetic and just wanted to refute the possibility of what I saw. He said a couple of times, "Why you not tell me this when you were here? Worms? That's impossible."
And then he pretty much hung up on me.
I hope those who know me would testify that I am not one to complain about a place openly, but this was a bit much to keep for just myself.
